A Detour Home

Silver and Gold

Rough Riders in the Gaymes Anthology

Thursday, April 21, 2016

RJ was nice enough to include me in her month-long autism awareness campaign, and I'm honored to support her. My life hasn't been personally, intimately touched by autism, however, I have many friends who live with it in their families, and I've seen how it can be both a challenge and a source of victories and rewards.

RJ, TA Chase, me and Amber Kell at GRL

I started my family in the early 2000s, when the news about autism was starting to become more frequent in the media. So when my first daughter had reached her second birthday without saying a single word, and liked to do things like line up her diapers in a row (Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, Cookie, Elmo, Big Bird, etc), I was concerned enough to talk to her pediatrician about it. Rather than it being autism, however, it was a sign of her later personality. She began speaking about two weeks after she turned two--in full sentences. And the pattern traits have morphed into a very strong organizational sense and love of order.

So I was fortunate in that my worry turned out to be unfounded. However, many parents with mounting suspicions or instincts that something isn't quite right come away with quite different news and it changes the way they must parent for the rest of their lives. And I have the utmost respect for those parents.

*****

Autism Fact #21: Hypersensitive hearing can make you particularly sensitive to sound - for example, able to hear conversations in the distance.

*****

As a final thought, as an ally, there are some things you can do to support friends and neighbors in an autism family:

Educate yourself about autism

Teach your children about autism and foster inclusion and empathy

Listen when they just need a friendly ear

Take social cues from the parents, or ask ahead of time how best to support their parenting

Don't give up on the relationship

Thank you so much for visiting and much love to RJ.<3 br="">3>

*****

I'd like to give out two prizes to commenters. Just leave a comment with your name, email and which prize you are interested in!

For US and Canada only, a print pack consisting of:

RJ Scott's Ellery Mountain Volume 3 (includes The Barman and The SEAL and The Agent and The Model)

Winner's choice of one of my available print books, personalized.

Open worldwide: Grad School Guys series in ebook, choice of Kindle delivery or other format

Remarkable Restraint

Naughty By Night (new release this month!)

*****

Naughty by Night blurb

Normally, finding the hot neighbor in bed with your boyfriend would be
the end—not the beginning—of a wonderful relationship.

Marty can’t catch a break. Unable to confess to his neighbor Kevin that it’s
Kevin he’s interested in, he ends up using advice to make a move on Jason
instead. He moves too slowly, though, and Kevin and Jason end up dating each
other, leaving Marty out in the cold.
Everything changes the morning Jason wakes up to find Marty in bed with him
and Kevin. Jason wonders whether he’s made a big mistake in committing to
Kevin. Marty’s mortified—he’s wanted Jason from afar for ages, but never had
the courage to act on it. And Kevin is plotting something naughty that will
give all three men what they’ve wanted all along.